No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) – USA

Hong Kong action director Corey Yuen actually made his Hollywood directorial debut in the 1986 film – No Retreat, No Surrender. Along with the budgeted war chest of USD700k from Ng See Yuen’s production company, they managed to hire a cast of unknown which included 15 minutes of star in the making screen time for JCVD. Van Damme simply turns up for the first and final fight and for those looking for someone at their physical fighting prime, these are the films where he does his own stunts. The plot line feels like a typical Hong Kong 80s movie affair with American actors inserted, including the ghost of Bruce Lee as sensei. The film lead actor is played by Kurt McKinney in his best known performance to date. What follows is a similar “Karate Kid” subplot and plenty of plot holes and 80s cheesiness along the way. The finale fight sequences are realistically shot without awful editing and the result is pretty much a trashy affair.
I rated it 3/5